Duration Of Pre‐University Education And Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence From A Quasi‐Experiment In Ghana
Date
2020
Authors
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Publisher
Journal of International Development
Abstract
This paper provides new evidence on the effect of shortening the duration of pre‐university
education on long‐term labour market outcomes in Ghana, exploiting the education reform of 1987 as
a natural experiment. Our results indicate that the drastic cut in the duration of pre‐tertiary education
from 17 to 12 years improved the labour market success of treated cohorts. However, this is
driven by a ‘quantity’ effect: the shorter course duration reduced the direct and indirect costs of
acquiring post‐primary education and allowed more students to enrol, which provided access to
better job opportunities. On aggregate, this has dominated the negative effect on education ‘quality’.
© 2020 UNU‐WIDER. Journal of International Development published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
years of education, labour market outcomes, regression discontinuity, Ghana